Professor Urbon has described 2 things that should be in the home pharmacy:

Dr. Vaidotas Urbonas, a gastroenterologist at the Santara Clinics Children’s Hospital and professor at the Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine, said that diarrhea can be infectious and non-infectious in origin. Infectious diarrhea is more common, and if you catch it, two tools that the teacher always recommends to have in your home pharmacy will help you, especially since they cost little and are valid for a long time.

The main thing – to restore water and salts.

Infectious diarrhea is usually caused by bacteria such as salmonella or viruses such as rotavirus. This diarrhea is short-lived, lasts up to a week, and can last longer in children.

The biggest problem that diarrhea can cause, according to the professor, is the loss of water and salt. For children, it can even end in death. This is a particularly common cause of death for children on the African continent. Child deaths due to loss of water and salt also occur in Europe, and there have been no deaths in Lithuania for the last decade.

“Automatically then the treatment consists of restoring the water and the salts. As a result, each person’s pharmacy, especially if there are young children in the family, should contain oral rehydration solutions, those saline solutions that are stocked in pharmacies and sold without a prescription. These saline solutions contain what the body absorbs optimally: sodium, chlorine, potassium and glucose. Glucose is necessary because without it, salt will not be as well absorbed by the body during diarrheal infections.

Mineral water also seems to be full of salts, but the problem is that, in general, if we drink only salts without glucose, some of those salts will not be absorbed by the body and can even slightly increase this diarrhea. This can be a big problem for young children, “warned Professor V. Urbonas.

It does not help against diarrhea and coca-cola or juices. Running water should also not be drunk.

“Of course, if you are somewhere in nature, you have nothing at hand, the pharmacy is far away, it is possible to drink salted water from a hurry, with a little sugar. It is better than drinking plain water. it will only make the condition worse as the amount of sodium in the body can be greatly reduced and this can lead to swelling of the brain, terrible seizures, after which sometimes the condition of the nervous system does not recover. This is a terrible complication , more terrible than epilepsy. Not in vain people used to kill people even with water: they gave them a lot of water to drink, the sodium was diluted and one person died of water poisoning. So drinking water with diarrhea alone is very bad, better than not drinking anything, but always add salt and sugar if necessary, “the doctor taught.

According to the interviewee, oral rehydration solutions can be taken in any quantity you want; Unlike other medications, they will not overdose.

“Very often it happens that when a person, even children, has a shortage of salts, there is a desire to drink that solution, even if it is not very tasty.

It is true that now there are vanilla-flavored solutions that children prefer to drink and mothers do not need to pour one or two milliliters into their mouth with a syringe every 5 minutes. The most important thing is to drink these solutions a little and many times ”, advises Professor V. Urbonas.

White clay and probiotics

In addition to the oral rehydration solution, the professor recommended that you always have medications in your home pharmacy to help suppress frequent and profuse infectious diarrhea.

“In Europe, two antidiarrheal remedies are recommended. One of them, diosmectitis, is that” white clay “that is a natural substance, like a sponge, that absorbs toxins, some viruses and prevents them from entering the body. In this way, the Toxins and viruses are eliminated along with the medicine, and a person has diarrhea for less than a day and recovers faster, but these medicines must be used with an oral rehydration solution.

The second group are probiotics, good bacteria. According to the recommendations of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, we must use probiotics that have been scientifically proven to be effective, ”said the doctor, who noted that probiotics are now in fashion, so there are many on the market which are expensive but ineffective.

How do you know which probiotics would help with diarrhea? The professor highlighted several bacteria: two lactobacilli – Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG Y Lactobacillus reuteri DSM and yeast Saccharomyces boulardii.

“These are three probiotics that have a proven positive effect and also shorten the course of diarrhea by about a day. But if we take diosmectitis together with probiotics, the diarrhea for two days will not be shortened as a result. That means we choose one or the other. ”Advised the professor.

Probiotics are also present in yogurt and kefir, but Dr. V. Urbon did not recommend their use during diarrhea.

“Diarrhea sometimes interrupts the breakdown and absorption of sugar in milk. And milk sugar: Lactose, which is present in all dairy products, may not be tolerated by people, especially during diarrhea. Lactose can make diarrhea worse.

Another thing that is not clear is what bacteria are added to that yogurt or kefir. In most cases, these bacteria have no effect on diarrhea, “noted the professor.

Carbon, loperamide, and other drugs

In pharmacies there are already more antidiarrheal drugs. One of them is the well-known activated carbon or simply carbon.

“Just as one of the drugs for infectious diarrhea could be charcoal. But it is difficult to drink, especially for children, and there is always a risk that if you drink it, you will start to feel nauseous and vomit. Oh God forbid, coal gets into your lungs, that’s a big problem. So maybe those things should be avoided. Of course, when there is nothing at hand, coal can be given with confidence, but there are risks with it, so traditionally we no longer distinguish it ”, explained Professor V. Urbonas.

The interlocutor also mentioned loperamide, a popular drug among adults.

“We strongly oppose its use not only in children but also in adults with infectious diarrhea. Because it is a drug that paralyzes the intestines, broadly speaking, the muscles no longer want to work and cause diarrhea.

Yes. The diarrhea stops because of that, but all that disgust (the viruses, the bacteria that cause that inflammation) doesn’t go away. It is found in the intestines and can enter the bloodstream within our body; then the condition will deteriorate very severely and blood contamination may even occur. On the contrary, we say that such drugs should be strictly avoided if it is infectious diarrhea. Because diarrhea itself, defecation, is basically a cure. The body is treated this way because it tries to eliminate viruses and bacteria from the body.

The problem is that when you wash too much, you wash too much salt with water. In moderation, it is not a problem. And if intestinal paralysis occurs, then everything stays inside and we eliminate the defense factor. This is very bad ”, warned Professor V. Urbonas.

The doctor said that there are more and more different drugs, but they are ineffective or ineffective and are practically not necessary to treat infectious diarrhea.

What to do if the diarrhea is not infectious?

As mentioned, the cause of diarrhea can also be non-infectious.

“It is more difficult to know what to use and when. In this case, it is important to find out the cause of the diarrhea. For example, if a child or adult has diarrhea due to an allergy to cow’s milk, no medication is needed. No Give him cow’s milk and the diarrhea stops.

If there is some kind of inflammatory bowel disease, like ulcerative colitis, then you are already treating it with some special medicine and the diarrhea stops.

During non-infectious diarrhea, the doctor tries to determine the cause. In general, this non-infectious diarrhea is chronic, when a person defecates for a long time, it improves or worsens. If a person comes in and says, “I’m already in the middle of a month or two,” it’s unlikely it’s infectious diarrhea, “Urbon said.

And infectious diarrhea usually lasts one to two weeks, very rarely longer. Often times, an infection causes diarrhea in several family members at the same time, or it manifests itself in someone on the visiting team: a workplace or an educational institution.

“In the case of infectious diarrhea, the salts with the fluids must be recovered and little by little everything goes away. Many drugs are not necessary, antibiotics are rarely given because the body itself is very well cleansed. Sometimes, even right after antibiotics are prescribed, the diarrhea persists. Clearly, when a child with severe diarrhea is several months old, antibiotics are prescribed. But in any case, they are not usually necessary, “noted the professor.

Chamomile tea also helps

Professor V. Urbonas said that chamomile tea with sugar also helps reduce inflammation.

“I don’t think we need honey, because sometimes it also blows the stomach or increases the acidity, in popular words, heartburn starts to gnaw.

But if you don’t like chamomile tea, let’s leave the person alone, don’t offer it to them, because when they start drinking something they don’t like, the person will get angry and start vomiting. Thus, in addition to diarrhea, another problem will contribute.

If you like chamomile tea, the most important thing is to drink it in small sips, especially if you feel bad. Suddenly, after drinking a large amount, a third or half a glass, you are often angry and that person vomits that tea. Instead, chamomile tea should be drunk little by little, one sip every few minutes. The most important thing is to keep the drink warm, because the activity of the stomach is also stopped a little by the cold and this can cause nausea ”, warned V. Urbonas.